Lake Deputy Sheriff Demolishes Patrol Truck In Accident

ALTOONA — A Lake County deputy sheriff demolished a 1985 Dodge Ram patrol truck Wednesday morning when he drove off State Road 19 and flipped the truck.

Paul L. Frost, 50, was examined and released from Waterman Medical Center shortly after the 8:25 a.m. accident.

Frost, who formerly was police chief in Tavares and Avon Park, said he was traveling north on a curved section of State Road 19 near Ravenwood Road when the right wheels of the truck ran off the pavement.

Frost said he overcompensated by steering the truck hard to the left trying to get it back on the roadway. The maneuver sent the truck across the centerline and into the path of an oncoming vehicle.

Frost said he again overcompensated by swinging back to the right, causing the truck to plow into a ditch and flip two or three times.

A department spokesman said the vehicle was a total loss.

In other police news, a Zellwood man and his juvenile sister were arrested early Wednesday and charged with robbing a convenience store in Sorrento.

Investigators said a man entered the store and asked the clerk for a bottle of witch hazel. The man then jumped the counter and placed the clerk in a bathroom while a young girl tried to open the cash register.

When the girl failed, the clerk was brought out of the bathroom and forced to open the register. When it was opened, the girl took out the cash and the two robbers fled.

Derrick Lee Blanton, 19, was charged with strong-arm robbery and false imprisonment. He was being held Wednesday night at the Lake County Jail. His bail was set at $10,000.

Blanton and his sister were stopped in their car a short distance from the store. Deputies said they found $67 under the passenger's seat.

Blanton's sister was not named by the police because she is a juvenile.